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Wednesday, March 12, 2014

A stocky military contractor and football club
president convicted on charges of match fixing is emerging as a potent symbol
of mounting popular anger against politicization of Turkey’s judiciary and
police force, apparent rampant corruption in the country, secularism and
opposition to the country’s powerful, rival Islamists factions.

Mr. Yildirim seems an unlikely symbol. While he insists that
he is innocent and that his conviction is part of a political struggle for
power between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and self-exiled preacher
Fethullalh Gulen, who heads one of the world’s largest Islamist networks, he
refuses to express political opinions of his own. Instead, Mr. Yildirim conveys
his opinions through what he says Turkish public opinion thinks.

Mr. Yildirim is not without rivals in his ambition to be an
undeclared opposition leader as part of his bid to reverse his conviction and
the banning of Fenerbahce SK, the political crown jewel in Turkish soccer with
an estimated fan base of 25 million, from European competitions.

The death
Tuesday of Berkin Elvan, a 15-year old boy who was in coma since he was hit on
the head last May by a police tear gas canister during mass anti-government
protests on Istanbul’s Taksim Square in which soccer fans played a key role,
sparked some of the most violent protests since last year’s watershed
demonstrations against Mr. Erdogan. The protesters demanded the resignation of
the government.

Mr. Elvan, who was only 14 when he was fatally injured while
buying bread, has too become a symbol of perceived arbitrariness of police
brutality and lack of accountability. No police officer has been held
responsible for the incident that led to Mr. Elvan’s death.

Similarly, anti-government sentiment appears to be building
in the Black Sea town of Trabzon, home to Fenerbahce arch rival Trabzonspor SK,
amid the worst corruption scandal in modern Turkish history that potentially
implicates Mr. Erdogan and his closest associates as well as unease that the
prime minister is undermining Turkish democracy with his efforts to subject the
judiciary to government control, limit access to the Internet, and curtail
freedom of expression.

Fenerbahce and Mr. Yildirim’s ability to mobilize were on
display last month when tens, if not hundreds, of thousands marched in Istanbul
in the largest anti-government demonstration since last year’s protests on
Taksim demanding justice for the club as well as for Turkey at large. Fans
chanted “Establish a party, Aziz Yıldırım” and “Thief Tayyip Erdogan,” a slogan
often heard during matches of Fenerbahce, which prides itself on upholding the
legacy of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the visionary who carved modern Turkey out of
the ruins of the Ottoman empire and imposed French-style secularism. Fenerbahce
is considering staging a second march in Ankara later this month.

“Enough is enough. We stand against illegality, a gang-led
legal system and anti-democratic establishments,” said a lawyer and fervent
Fenerbahce fan who is close to Mr. Yildirim.

Complicating Turkish soccer’s political battles in advance
of March 30 municipal elections widely seen as a referendum on Mr. Erdogan’s
embattled government is the fact that the corruption scandal, Turkey’s worst
ever match-fixing scandal in which Mr. Yildirim figures prominently, and
question marks about the integrity of judicial proceedings that put hundreds of
military officers and others behind bars is the fact that all of this is
overlaid by the power struggle between Turkey’s foremost Islamist leaders.

That struggle focuses on control of Turkey’s judiciary and
police force that are believed to be populated by supporters of Mr.Gulen. Mr.
Erdogan has removed prosecutors who initiated the legal proceedings against
alleged corruption in his government, the military as well as allegedly corrupt
soccer executives, including Mr. Yildirim. He has also reassigned thousands of
police officers since the corruption scandal erupted on December 17 with the
arrest of sons of three Cabinet ministers and the head of a state-owned bank
who allegedly had $4.5 million stashed away in his home. The prime minister
asserts that his moves are designed to dismantle a state within the state.

Few doubt the corruption allegations or the fact that match
fixing is a fixture of Turkish soccer, but many Turks question the integrity of
the legal process and the evidence and believe that the timing of both scandals
was highly political. Mr. Yildirim is appealing his sentencing to 28 months in
prison and asking the constitutional court for a retrial. “There is no match
fixing case, this is a political case,” he says, expecting that he will be sent
to prison to serve his sentence after this month’s crucial municipal elections.

Fenerbahce is also applying to the Lausanne-based Court of
Arbitration of Sport (CAS) to overturn its banning for three years from
European championships by European soccer governor UEFA. Fenerbahce charges
that the ban is unjust because it is based on an investigation by Turkey’s
politicized police rather than the verdict of the court and that UEFA was
manipulated by supporters of Gulen within the Turkish Football Federation
(TFF).

A flurry of tapes of conversations apparently recorded as
part of a massive surveillance operation has fuelled the corruption scandal that
has forced four of Mr. Erdogan’s ministers to resign and brought the simmering
conflict between Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Gulen into the open. On the tapes, some of
which Mr. Erdogan has acknowledged and some of which he has denounced as false,
the prime minister is heard talking among others to his son of moving large
amounts of cash in the wake of the scandal, favouring government contractors,
and seeking to manipulate Fenerbahce’s internal affairs to ensure that Mr.
Yildirim, who is serving his fifth two-year term, is replaced by a chairman
more loyal to the prime minister. Fenerbahce has imitated internal disciplinary
measures against the prime minister, a former soccer player and member of the
club.

Mr. Yildirim and his aides shower visitors with a barrage of
detail and hand them a 745-page bound volume documenting his defence in what is
a murky case in which it is difficult to distinguish fact from assertion.

Nevertheless, the legal procedures raise questions irrespective of whether Mr.
Yildirim is guilty or not. Mr. Yildirim was tried in a special court that has
since been abolished that only heard cases involving membership in an armed group
and economic benefit from acts of violence.

The abolishing of the courts has opened the door to
potential retrial of many of its cases, including those against the military
which were used in a joint effort by Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Gulen to subject Turkey’s
powerful military to civilian control. Authorities have released in recent days
scores of officers and others, including former chief of the general staff
General Ilker Basbug who was sentenced to life in prison on charges of plotting
against the government and establishing a terrorist organization.

The arrest in 2011 of Mr. Yildirim and 92 others and of
General Basbug in 2012 against Mr. Erdogan’s will served as early indicators of
the developing power struggle between the prime minister and Mr. Gulen. The two
men fought a proxy battle over legal penalties for match fixing when the soccer
scandal erupted that Mr. Erdogan won by pushing through parliament a bill that
significantly reduced the penalties and arm twisting the TFF to get Fenerbahce
off the hook and prevent clubs guilty of match fixing from being relegated.

In an article this week in the Financial Times, Mr. Gulen
denied involvement in politics and asserted that his network “worked to provide
equal opportunity for all, through educational institutions, relief
organisations and other civil society projects.”

At the same time, Mr. Gulen charged without explicitly
naming Mr. Erdogan that “a small group within the government’s executive branch
is holding to ransom the entire country’s progress” and was squandering public
support with its recent actions, including “a law that gives the justice
minister powers to appoint and discipline judges and prosecutors; a bill to
curb internet freedoms; and a draft law that would give Turkey’s intelligence
agency powers akin to those claimed by dictatorial regimes.”

The Fenerbahce case despite Mr. Gulen’s denial that he is
involved in any of the scandals raises questions about his ability to control
his network. Some analysts believe that aides to Mr. Gulen, a frail 73-year
old, may be driving events. Mr. Gulen appeared to implicitly acknowledge that
in two phone calls to Mr. Yildirim in 2011 after the soccer official turned
down an invitation to visit the preacher in his self-exile in the United
States. People familiar with the phone calls quote Mr. Gulen as telling Mr.
Yildirim: “There is nothing bad in my heart against you. I am not involved in
this. There might be people who did wrong against you but I am not aware of
this if it was my people.”

In an inscription in a book Mr. Gulen sent to Mr. Yildirim
in between the two phone calls, the preacher wrote: “To Aziz Bey whom I never
had a chance to meet but admire for his activism, righteousness and
perseverance. My prayers are with you that your difficult days may pass.”

Mr. Yildirim is nonetheless convinced that the Gulenists
sparked the match fixing scandal in a bid to gain control of Fenerbahce even if
he refrains from saying so directly. “It is said that there is a powerful
organization within state institutions,” he says referring to the police and
the judiciary. “That is seen as dangerous. The Republic of Turkey is a
democratic country with a constitution, a separation of powers and a
parliamentary system. Ataturk is the face of Turkey. Any strike against this disturbs
the public. It’s a real threat according to the public because the government
cannot run the country. It seems that this is the situation in Turkey. People
can’t trust these institutions. It’s against the public interest. If Cemaat
(the Gulenist movement) wants to maintain their organization as a service to
the people, they should not just think of themselves but work for the benefit
of the public,” he says.

With tensions in Turkey rising, anger is spilling not only
on to the streets in the wake of the death of Mr. Elvan but also on to the
soccer pitch. Fans of various clubs, not just Fenerbahce, chant “Erdogan Thief”
during matches.

A derby between Fenerbahce and Black Sea team Trabzonspor
was abandoned last Sunday after fans of Trabzon, once a thriving Ottoman port
still known for its legendary soccer club, its fanatical football fans and
hot-tempered, explosive inhabitants who are quicker with a knife than with
their wits, pelted Istanbul’s players and officials with smoke missiles.

Tension between the two teams has been mounting since the
2010-11 season when Fenerbahce topped Trabzon on points to win the championship.
Fenerbahce’s triumph was part of the match fixing investigation that led to Mr.
Yildirim’s sentencing. "Anarchy starts when justice is over," said
Trabzonspor coach Senol Gunes after Trabzonspor lost the championship to
Fenerbahce.

Trabzonspor, like Fenerbahce, is a politically important
team for Mr. Erdogan. The prime minister has pumped money into the team and in
2005 appointed one of its former players as his minister of public works.

Trabzon has been in decline since its glorious Ottoman days with maritime trade
all but drying up and railroad construction having bypassed it. Sevecen Tunc, a
Turkish sports historian and author of a book on the social history of soccer
in Trabzon, argues that municipal leaders believe that soccer can restore the
city’s civic pride and ensure that it remains a player on the national stage.

“Trabzon fans believe in Senol Gunes’ statement. All my
friends who were directly involved in the events of last Sunday or indirectly
supported them quoted him .That is how they legitimize what happened. I am
afraid that this violence is just a beginning and will not be limited to
football because sociologically, the inhabitants of this city have no
agriculture, no industry and no commerce. The only way they can put Trabzon on
the map is football. Trabzon has waited for the Super League championship since
1983-84 and they won it in the 2010-11 season, at least that is what they
believe. This could get dangerously out of control if Yildirim is not punished
and Trabzonspor is not as yet awarded the 2010-11 title,” Ms. Tunc says.

Sunday’s violence was in part sparked by the positioning of
sharpshooters on rooftops around Trabzon’s Avni Aker Stadium to protect the
Fenerbahce squad, widely viewed in Trabzon as a pro-government club, in part
because of Mr. Erdogan’s membership. To Trabzon fans, the message was clear,
according to Ms. Tunc: “The state protects its team and sees people from Trabzon
as terrorists.”

James M. Dorsey is a Senior Fellow at the S.
Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological
University. He is also co-director of the University of Würzburg’s Institute
for Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East
Soccer blog and a forthcoming book with the same
title.

7 comments:

Mr. Dorsey, there should be a correction to this post. Fenerbahce have been barred from European competition for two years, not three. The original sanction was three, but that was a two year direct ban, with the 3rd being suspended for a period of five years. After appeal to UEFA, the sanction was changed to a two year direct ban.

Fenerbahçe have been barred for ONE year on August 26,2011 by TFF due to a letter sent by General Secretary of UEFA and have been additionally barred for TWO + ONE year by UEFA Control and Disciplinary Body which was later on reduced to TWO years by CAS in Late August,2013. In total, Fenerbahçe have been barred for THREE years.

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About Me

James M DorseyWelcome to The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer by James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Soccer in the Middle East and North Africa is played as much on as off the pitch. Stadiums are a symbol of the battle for political freedom; economic opportunity; ethnic, religious and national identity; and gender rights. Alongside the mosque, the stadium was until the Arab revolt erupted in late 2010 the only alternative public space for venting pent-up anger and frustration. It was the training ground in countries like Egypt and Tunisia where militant fans prepared for a day in which their organization and street battle experience would serve them in the showdown with autocratic rulers. Soccer has its own unique thrill – a high-stakes game of cat and mouse between militants and security forces and a struggle for a trophy grander than the FIFA World Cup: the future of a region. This blog explores the role of soccer at a time of transition from autocratic rule to a more open society. It also features James’s daily political comment on the region’s developments. Contact: incoherentblog@gmail.comView my complete profile